Cartridges were housed in an en-bloc clip, which was pushed straight down into the receiver. When the last round is fired, the clip ejects.

You can buy the correct ammunition for your Garand from the CMP as well. It will all be ball, M2, 150-grain full metal jacket bullets, loaded to the correct pressure and pressure curve for your Garand. It won't be the most accurate ammo, but it will work.

That's not your only option as Hornady and ATK are both gearing up to produce ammo specifically for use in the M1. We're going to have more on this in future issues of Rifle Shooter as soon as we can get our hands on some to test.

I bought my first Garand at a great price because the owner thought there was something wrong with it. I picked up a match-conditioned Garand with a Springfield receiver, a Springfield barrel with a manufacture date of June 1965--complete with National Match-marked front and rear sights and operating rod--for $300 in 1977.

It came with an ammo can of clips, and the usual tale of woe: "The bore's shot out; it won't stay on a target." What I found was the usual: a bore that had never been cleaned, and a twist--the owner either hadn't known, or had not believed, that the front handguard was to be left alone.

I found the bore so choked with powder and jacket fouling it took a week to get it clean, and the front handguard was clearly rubbing the barrel. A match-conditioned barrel has the front handguard firmly secured to the barrel at the handguard's rear bolster. Once I had a clean bore and free-floating handguard, it shot as you'd expect a Garand to: about one m.o.a. And it still does today.

My first IPSC 3-gun match with it was a hoot. After running through the field course and disposing of around 40 rounds of .30-06 at maximum speed, I was nearly seeing double. After that I dropped the velocity. Rather than trying to load Sierra 168-grain Matchkings to the maximum velocity needed for NRA highpower shooting, I went with 150-grain full metal jackets at as low a velocity as would cycle the rifle.

So instead of a 168-grain bullet at 2,600 fps, I began shooting 150s at 2,400 fps. I found the recoil much easier, thank you. But even that was a lot more than the AR-15 and M1 carbine shooters were putting up with. So I took my Garand off to highpower matches, to use it where it was intended.

What I found there was that lying out in the hot sun was work, albeit of a different kind. And recoil while prone was even worse than recoil while standing--not to mention the hazards of getting hot brass down your neck from the shooter next to you. I began shooting with a towel tucked in the neck of my jacket to ward off any brass that might fall on me.

One of the marvels of the M1 Garand is that it has target sights. Even the basic sights are windage and elevation click-adjustable. In the 1930s, that was unbelievable in a battle rifle. It is still rare today.

Not only did John Garand make them target sights, he made them tough target sights. If you did manage to drop and break the sights, the breakable parts were also the easiest to swap out. You can change the rear aperture without any tools, and replacing the front requires only an Allen wrench.

M1 Garand Assembly

M1 Garand Video